Menu Plan Monday

Welcome to another week of healthy eating! Okay, well there may a few meals in here that require temperance, but nothing that will require too much self-control. In some cases, I have included the Weight Watchers Points Plus values in parenthesis. 

Monday:

Lunch: Leftovers

Dinner:  Black beans with vegetables and ricotta, over rice and baby spinach

Tuesday:

Lunch - Lemony hummus goat cheese pitas, Red  cabbage slaw, apple slices

Dinner - Cheese grits, blindfolded eggs, fresh fruit.

Wednesday:

Lunch - 

Dinner - Take-out Pizza, salad

Thursday:

Lunch - Filet Mingon, Six Color Rice (based on this recipe)i, mandarin oranges

Dinner - Pasta Thursday - spaghetti with meat sauce, broccoli, fruit for dessert

Friday:

Lunch:  School lunch trays today!

Dinner: Shrimp salad, toast and Mamaw's homemade jam

Saturday

Lunch: Leftovers

Dinner: Weight Watchers Homemade Mac-n-Cheese (6), sliced tomato salad

Sunday:

Lunch: Snack plate

Dinner: Slow Cooker Brisket, (9)  mashed potatoes, green beans

Linking up to OrgJunkie's Menu Plan Monday; check out all the great menus!  The "real food" low-fat menus are hard to come by but I get tons of inspiration from what other people eat.

Fab Friday Tips, Tricks and Inspiration

Friday.  This one came around fast. I have been reading a lot of interesting news lately but I will try to restrain my reporting to my usual Friday themes.

Trying to change up your whole grain world?  Here's a tip, try red rice. If you don't know about red rice, this Fooducate article will enlighten you to this underutilized super food. But I have my own reasons: It's pretty.  I used both red and black rice with brown this week for our 6 Color Rice and it is so pretty. Best practice though? Cook the red rice separately, then add in if you are doing multi-colored rice; it bled a bit into my brown rice and darkened the whole delicious dish. (I haven't typed up the 6 Color Rice recipe yet, but my starting point was this 7 Color Inarizushi recipe.)

It turns out an apple a day not only keeps the doctor away, but also the hunger at bay. My friend Gina has a trick for eating less at meals, especially potlucks and parties. She eats an apple on her way to the table.  It also bears repeating that numerous studies have shown that diners who have soup as a first course eat significantly fewer calories in the meal than those who do not.

At work today, I checked someone's drivers license and could not help commenting that she must have lost a great deal of weight. She had, indeed; 168 pounds were "lost" and she was not trying to find them! The photo itself, though hugely, inspiring, was not the most inspirational part of this interaction. She mentioned that before losing the weight, she was a diabetic with high cholesterol and sky high triglycerides. All are under control now and she takes no medicine for any of it. Her enthusiasm for life and joy at what she'd done made my day.

That's it for me, folks. It's late and mama's tired. Have a fantastic and fit weekend!

Menu Plan Monday - Eating Fresh and Healthy

School is in full swing and we are back-to-bento. Packing 7 lunches a day takes a bit of pre-planning but my family is happy and prefer Mom's lunches to the school's . . . sweet, victory. We are "winging" it for breakfast since I realized I don't follow my breakfast menus - like - ever. That said, we tried two new things for breakfast that we adored.  The first is this odd looking egg cloud; easy and fun -- just use a light hand with the salt!

The other yummy dish was this morning's cinnamon pancakes. They are 2/3 whole grain and very filling. They are 7 Weight Watcher's points+. (390 kcal, protein - 11.3, fat - 5.6 g, 47.8 carbs, fiber - 3.6 g)  I got the recipe at my meeting (and made only a slight modification):

6 servings 

1 C old fashioned Oats

1 C whole wheat flour

1 C all-purpose unbleached flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. brown sugar (mix all the dry)

Add:

2 eggs,

1 Tbsp melted butter

2 cups buttermilk.

Delish!

Monday:

Lunch: Leftovers

Dinner:  Tacos and fixins (both crunchy corn and whole wheat tortillas), Yellow Polka Dot salad (a new favorite!), Blueberry-lemon pound cake

Tuesday:

Lunch - Pork asparagus rolls with sauce, cooked potatoes, strawberries, mandarin orange, green salad with dressing.  (I love these new bentos I found at World Market. The side with the salad closes, then flips over and it becomes a cube. It holds a ton, too, perfect for Dad and The Captain).

Dinner - Chicken Spaghetti, salad

Wednesday:

Lunch - Meatloaf "cupcakes," cooked carrots, pasta with pesto, raw broccoli, fruit

Dinner - Italian Chicken Rolls, zoodles (zucchini shreds), pasta (for some), green salad 

Thursday:

Lunch - School lunch trays today!

Dinner - Salsa Verde Chicken Tostadas (with Slaw) - there are two links here, one for the crockpot chicken, the other for the tostadas with the simple slaw

Fresh fruit salad

Friday:

Lunch: Boiled eggs, broccoli, grape tomatoes, pretzels, grapes, strawberries

Dinner: Shrimp salad, Zesty Zucchini soup, toast and JAM!

Saturday

Lunch: Leftovers

Dinner: Chicken Pot Pie (lower fat), pretty salad, fresh fruit

Sunday:

Lunch: Grilled Chicken with Corn and Tomato Salad, crusty bread for the kids

Dinner: "Root hog"

(When I was a child, there was an old saying, "Root, hog, or die!" I know, it sounds terrible, but in my family, "Root Hog" meant we each got to find what we wanted to eat, and eat it.  It might be leftovers, ramen noodles, or a bowl of cereal. "Root hog" happened but rarely and we loved it.)

Linking up to OrgJunkie's Menu Plan Monday; check out all the great menus!  The "real food" low-fat menus are hard to come by but I get tons of inspiration from what other people eat.